Vintage (and rather sexist) Ads

The 1930's, the good old days of advertising, when an ad just wasn't an ad unless it came with a heavy dose of sexism.  While perhaps these are rather offensive and demeaning, in this day and age I can't help but find them absolutely hilarious.

Is this not every woman's dream come true?  Yes- Please do blow large quantities of smoke in my face while I gaze dreamily into your eyes.

I do enjoy cooking...

Shoes, yup that'll do it. 

 That just looks uncomfortable, a shirt and tie in bed?

I know you probably can't read this lavish story about a man trying to convince a woman that the postage meter is far superior to former methods of post, but she doesn't give in until she places a pink bow on the machine to make it "cute" - but the best line: "She acts like an early Christian about to be lunch for a lion."

Valid point.  I would have had difficulties climbing a flimsy rope up the side of a mountain in whatever crazy getup I am sure that woman is wearing.  Perhaps if she had been wearing a Drummond climbing sweater she'd be in better hands.

 Obviously.

 I do think women are generally worse drivers...

Heaven forbid!  

"After one look at those Mr. Leggs slacks, she was ready to have him walk all over her."

This just looks wrong.

Was ketchup not twist off prior?

Was the thought bubble intentionally left blank?

I wonder if anyone used this...

 I just love this one.

"Be the you he likes.  Good to be around any day of the month."  Don't take Midol for your terrible pain, take it so that you can be a little more peppy and pleasant to be around for Mr. Feathered Hair. 

Also, sexism aside, what was soda's thing for babies?

Annnnnnd just to wrap things up, lets throw in a modern day ad:
Dr. Pepper 10, it's not for women.

Catvertising. Yes Please!

John St., an ad agency in Toronto, seems to be getting a lot of buzz through the humorous videos they released this year and last.

Last year they created a case study on how to make Chelsea Bedano's 8th birthday a big hit.  There were many tactics including a pre-party sleepover and a strategic invites to the most popular girls in the class.  Ultimately, it was the mini pony that really made the event memorable.  That Chelsea Bedano is one lucky lady.

Following suit with last years video, this year John St. created a video on catvertising.  This video capitalizes on the extreme popularity of homemade cat videos on the Internet.  Catvertising - it's win win.

While very entertaining, people are downgrading the agencies creativity while pointing out the videos similarity to another youtube wonder that was created a few months prior:

While these videos may seem like a bit of a time sink, they are drawing a lot of attention to the agency as they are being featured by large ad publications such as AdWeek (also my blog - it's a big deal).  Also, they are showing the agencies capabilities and better establishing their overall brand.  Entertaining. Self promoting. Genius?

Not a Bad View

Over the past few weeks or so I have been getting some pretty great shots of the view from my apartment downtown Portland. 

Not too shabby, eh?

A Dose Of Augmented Reality With Your Coffee?

The season of Gingerbread Lattes and Spiked Eggnog Lattes (no Starbucks does not serve this, unfortunately) is upon us.  And what a better way for the company to get an unnecessarily early start on the holiday season than releasing this new AR app this coming Tuesday to go along with their seasonal red cups (November 15).

First off, I would like to point out that the festivities for Christmas seem to be starting earlier and earlier each year, not that I'm opposed, just noting.  I actually saw one of the TV networks have a countdown to the 25 days of Christmas countdown starting on November 20.  A countdown to a countdown. Interesting. Soon we will just bypass Thanksgiving altogether, which would be a shame. 

Anyways, Christmas ranting in the past and my red Starbucks cup and Spiked Eggnog Latte in hand, here is the video of what this app will do and how you can enjoy it for the season!

How it works:
-Download the app
-Point your smart phone at these red cups (or other branded Starbucks objects)
-Watch in SHEER AMAZEMENT as characters come to life and interact with your beverage

You can "collect" all 5 characters to qualify for a prize of some sort and inevitably there is some social media sharing involved. 
 
Unfortunately, I am still stuck in the dark ages with my un-smart phone so I won't be able to enjoy this delightful app, but in the words of Starbucks, "Let's merry."

Skechers BOBS Rip Off TOMS

Skechers recently released a line of new society enhancing shoes, BOBS.  Essentially, Skechers copied the exact same concept as the popular do-good company TOMS: Purchase one pair of shoes and a second pair will get donated to a child in need. 

The problem with this, is TOMS was founded with a strong back story and purpose.  The founder, Blake Mycoskie, traveled for a time in Argentina during which he encountered several barefoot children.  He founded TOMS to benefit these children and the emotional appeal to help a child in need caused TOMS to have wild success.  However, the message of TOMS is still pure and the company does not spend much money on marketing campaigns or other forms of promotion.

With BOBS, I worry that many people will view Skechers recent business decision as a marketing ploy that is unoriginal and a huge rip off, down to their very name: BOBS.  I mean, you can't really get too much closer, one syllable names- BOBS, TOMS, JOES, etc... same difference really.  Not to mention, the BOBS shoe is IDENTICAL to a TOMS shoe, albeit at a slightly lower price point of $42 compared to $54ish for a pair of TOMS.

While I am sure Mycoskie doesn't mind the copy cat as it ultimately is working towards the greater purpose, I think TOMS advocates and the rest of society will view it as stealing some thunder.  I mean, with the exact same design and promotion (buy one, give one) the only market I really see for the new Skechers is to take some of TOMS potential buyers that are perhaps looking for a cheaper model or love the Skechers brand.

Perhaps a far better way for Skechers to help, would have been to find an equally generous way to help those in need that fit their own model and used some originality.  Within 24 hours of releasing this product internet forums were covered with disapproving patrons. 

I will be interested to see if Skechers will be able to do any good with this new product.  I guess any publicity is good publicity?

Google's Email Intervention

Recently Google has begun an email intervention, to switch users from outdated accounts from providers such as Hotmail, Yahoo, and AOL to a clearly superior Gmail account.

Gmail began, as so many other of Google's services, as an invite-only beta program.  Google gives its employees 20% of their work time to work on independent "pet" projects.  And if they like them, they get a test run through invite only beta programs.  Many programs such as Adwords (Gmail delivers text-based Google AdWords ads that are relevant to the content of users' email messages), Music Beta (which if you haven't checked out it is really cool), and the recent Google+ social networking site were created through this flex time.

The Gmail intervention allows users to send their friends/family an intervention email through http://www.emailintervention.com/.

While it seems like everyone I know uses Gmail, Microsoft's Hotmail and Yahoo Mail both currently have more subscribers.  Perhaps this is due to people like me, that keep their Hotmail account around to sign up for things they are not sure they want to get emails from...

Google's Twitter account announced that 100,000 interventions were sent within the first 24 hours.
Microsoft soon retaliated with a video poking fun at Google, in particular Adwords:

It's actually fairly entertaining.

I think this is just another small step in Google's world takeover.

Mano A Mano in El Bano

Wieden + Kennedy has started off the internet duel of the century!  Between new Old Spice guy, Fabio, and old Old Spice guy, Isaiah Mustafa. 

First of all, yes, Fabio has apparently taken over as the new Old Spice guy.  His ads focus on his superiority to old Old Spice guy and involve a lot of hair blowing in the wind and expected bad Fabio acting, or talking, or whatever you will call it.  Although I suppose it is just who he is...

The event began as Fabio challenged Mustafa to an Internet duel Monday morning.

Which was soon accepted by Mustafa.

And so began Mano A Mano In El Bano

Isaiah laid down the rules for the duel:

And so it all began.  The challenges included staring, rap, mad libs, whistle, and pushups contests.

And all the while Fabio and Isaiah replied with youtube videos through the Old Spice channel to twitter followers trying to outdo each other in areas such as leaving a better message, naming a baby, and answering any other question posed to them.

Working out.

 How to get a hot date.

Leaving an out of the office email video.

Overall, I am not super impressed with the duel.  It has received a fair amount of hits (30K + per video), but I am not sure it has hit numbers W+K would brag about yet.  I am not sure if this duel has ended... so perhaps there is more to come?

As for Fabio as new Old Spice guy, I guess it will certainly draw attention, but I think a lot of people will not like this new representative.  I think Isaiah has won a place in people's hearts (or heads at least) as that orginally, refreshingly, quirky, manly man.  And Fabio just can't quite keep up...

Although one thing I don't like about Isaiah's take in these duels.  He has apparently now elevated himself to an unhumanly, godly status.  Which poses the question, could he still be the manly MAN?  He still has some of his randomly put together phrases, but they don't quite have the style they usually do. 

Basically, I think perhaps W+K should have let a good thing die.  But we will see, maybe I will be proven wrong.